Any of you use ground public transportation?

[Xrayted]

We are currently selling our second car as we haven't touched it in months. The other car gets driven mostly on weekends when we go camping, visiting, need the room to haul things or just can't deal with the "public" part of public transit.

We take the bus most days to work otherwise we ride our bikes or motorcycles. We have to pay to park at work ($10/day, $200 month) so the discounted transit pass is way cheaper by far at $11/biweekly. It also covers the light rail and the streetcar (which also have bike racks). The cool thing is, since we are a major employer in Portland, we have expresses running quite regularly right up to the door and all around the hospital campus. Even Vancouver, WA has expresses to work. A majority of the employees take mass transit no matter where they live, at least part of the way. They've certainly made it easy to do so. As Jolt said, we read on the way or nap or...
Anytime we decide to go into Portland city (we live about 15 miles out), the airport, college... we always take a mix of bus and light rail. No worrying about finding a parking space, getting the car dinged, stolen, broken into,... One of the biggest reasons I moved here last year. Well, besides the bike friendly attitude and, of course, my DW.
Although, I must say, overall,we both would rather live in Eugene, OR. Their transit system is great too. The difference is, it's a small city/college town that has endless bike/walking paths that are totally useable to go anywhere you need to, not just to loop through a park, like here. And - it's blissfully flat!!!!!

X-onelesscarmostofthetime-rayted

[Crankin]

I will be taking the commuter rail to my classes in Cambridge starting in September (a different line than Jolt). There's no parking at all in Porter Square and the university highly discourages people from taking their cars. However, there's no student discount for the commuter rail, only for trolleys, buses, commuter boats. I felt a little weird about asking about the student pass at my age, but, I figured what the heck? The train home leaves at the same time as my last class ends, so I am going to try to get permission to leave 5 minutes early (the station is next door to the building where I will be). Otherwise, I will be hanging around an extra hour and 15 minutes, since it becomes off peak time, after 6:30PM.
The good thing is, the train station is 5 miles from my house and the local grocery store lets people park in their lot; otherwise, there's like ten spaces by the station. Parking at the local commuter rail stations is a real problem in the suburbs here. There just isn't enough space.

[indigoiis]

I ride to the bus (6-15 miles, depending on which bus I want to catch) on the days I don't ride all the way into Providence.

RIPTA buses all have racks - room enough for two bikes. The closer bus (6 miles from my house) already has two committed commuters who get on the bus (and take both rack spots) a few stops before mine. So if I use this bus, I have to lock my bike at the bus stop. If I go for the other bus, there's usually room for my bike.

RIPTA recently experienced a huge budget problem. Most of their revenue comes from the state in the form of gas tax revenue. So obviously, their income dropped this year. Combine this with a huge increase in ridership due to gas prices going up, and RIPTA has a problem. Now they say they will have to cut some longer routes - and both buses I can catch are being reviewed!

Ironic!

[OakLeaf]

Not available where I live in Ohio.

Where I live in Florida, within my town it's just as easy to bike. To go to the next town (20 miles) would be a 2 hour bus trip with 2 transfers. I could tighten that up a little by biking some of the way, but there are no safe biking routes at most of my ultimate destinations in the next town.

When visiting Europe, DC or NYC we always use public transport. The latter two cities are frequent destinations (family nearby); other US cities, we're not so familiar with the public transportation network, also more likely to have a rental car, so somewhat less likely to use public transport.

[roadie gal]

I would use public transportation if it was available. There's nothing up here.

Slightly on a tangent... I can't believe there's not a commuter train between San Francisco and Tahoe. There's a train that goes to Sacramento and then you have to take a local bus to San Fran. It takes about 7 hours (vs 4 in a car).

[Flur]

I ride the bus to and from work every day. When I lived in Hoboken I would take the ferry across the Hudson to NYC to work. I've had two jobs that I had to drive to in my entire adult life, and I avoid it like the plague. When we move, public transportation is one of the primary things we look at.